Time to release Eugene de Kock, says Boraine

Former TRC deputy chairperson Alex Boraine has called for the release on parole of apartheid-era assassin Eugene de Kock; as well
as the murderers of former SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani, the
Sunday Times reported.

“It is overdue. The parole board has failed him [De
Kock],” the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s former official said
in an interview with the newspaper.

“I think the killers of Hani ought to be released as well,” Boraine added.

He said that one of the reasons De Kock should be
released was because he had been a “fall guy” for higher-ranked
apartheid officials.

“He was bad and rotten but he was following orders and a great number of people got off scot-free. He has served his time.”

Boraine said he also believed De Kock’s release could assist with “reconciliation”.

On July 10, Justice and Correctional Services Minister
Michael Masutha announced that De Kock, who has spent almost two
decades in prison, would have to wait another year before his
application for parole was reconsidered to allow the families of his
victims to be consulted.

During apartheid, De Kock was in charge of a police
death squad at Vlakplaas, outside Pretoria, which arranged and carried
out the deaths of anti-apartheid activists. He was arrested in 1994 and
convicted and sentenced in 1996 to two terms of life imprisonment for
six murders and to a further 212 years’ imprisonment on charges
including conspiracy to commit murder, culpable homicide, kidnapping,
assault, and fraud.

Many of his former colleagues who committed murder under his command testified in return for indemnity from prosecution.

Clive Derby-Lewis, who was convicted of conspiring to
kill SA Communist Party general secretary Chris Hani by providing the
gun Polish immigrant Janusz Walus used to kill him in the driveway of
his home in Boksburg, on the East Rand, on April 10 1993, has spent
more than 20 years behind bars.

Derby-Lewis was originally sentenced to death, but this
was commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished
in 1995.

Last month the correctional services department said it
would give urgent attention to Derby-Lewis’s medical parole
application, as he is terminally ill.
- Sapa